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2023 PDP Zoning: I Was Misquoted, says Orthom

By
Uche Mbah
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By Uche Mbah

Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Zoning committee, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, has denied saying that the PDP has thrown open the Presidency to all contenders, thereby jettisoning zoning.

A 37-member Committee, chaired by Ortom, sat and deliberated for four hours yesterday on the thorny issue of zoning.

Zoning was adopted for the party by the so “Asaba Declaration”, but, Ortom, after the meeting said he has forwarded the proposal to the appropriate quarters.

But information filtered in from the yet to-be-made public zoning position, indicating that the Presidency was thrown open due to the “exigencies of time”. Other positions will flow from the Presidential nomination.

With this, candidates from the North, notably Atiku Abubakar, Bala Mohammed, Aminu Tambuwal and Bukola Saraki heaved sighs of relief being that the party has been under pressure to zone the Presidency to the South, particularly South east.

Ortom, spoke Wednesday through a statement signed by Nathaniel Ikyur, his Chief Press Secretary.

In the statement, Ortom claims he was misquoted.

“I want to clear the insinuation that the zoning committee has thrown open the presidential ticket. I did inform the media yesterday (Tuesday, April 5, 2022) that the committee has adopted a unanimous position to be presented to the national executive committee (NEC) of the party. Where did I say that the committee has thrown open the presidential ticket?”, the statement said.

El-Rufai Promises To Support Tinubu’s Presidential Aspiration; Says Nigeria At Crossroad

By
The Source
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By Gideon Njoku

“We are aware of your aspiration to be President of this country. We look forward to further engagement so that we can progress that aspiration”

Perhaps moved by his condolence visit over the attack on an Abuja-Kaduna bound Train, and a donation of the sum of N50m to the State Government, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai seem to have turned positively around for Bola Tinubu, former Lagos State Governor and a Presidential aspirant under the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Tinubu and El-Rufai have not  always seen eye to eye politically after the initial romance that gave birth to APC. On, at least, two occasions, El-Rufai had indirectly tackled Tinubu, once in the city of Lagos. He had urged Lagosians to kick out the godfather.

But it was a different El-Rufai on Tuesday when Tinubu visited him in Kaduna. He was full of praises for the APC Presidential front-runner. He said Tinubu, by his visit, has shown good leadership. He said Tinubu’s visit and donation were unprecedented, and added that Kaduna State and its will never forget.

El-Rufai said Tinubu had beaten him to it, as he had planned to visit Tinubu to thank and appreciate him for cancelling his 70th birthday Colloquium(13th in the series) on March 28, in honour of the victims of the  horrendous attack on the Kaduna bound Train.

El-Rufai: “This gesture by Asiwaju is a show of powerful leadership, empathy and concern for the lives and property of Nigerians. It’s unprecedented in our history in Nigeria. The Government and people of Lagos State will never forget this gesture. We are very grateful to you for service, sacrifice and commitment to the unity of our country.”

On Tinubu’s Presidential aspiration, El-Rufai said: “We are aware of your aspiration to be President of this country. We look forward to further engagement so that we can progress that aspiration.”

A couple of weeks ago, El-Rufai had indirectly endorsed the Minister for Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, when he said he was not interested in running for any office in 2023, but would agree, if pressurised by President Muhammadu Buhari, to run on same ticket with Amaechi.

On the state of the Nation, both men  agreed Nigeria has become a mess.

El-Rufai: “Nigeria is at crossroad, critical crossroad, and we must take  very critical decisions to get the right leaders that would take us out of the multiple quagmire that we are going through. These are human challenges, and they can be solved by human ingenuity.”

President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to visit Kaduna since after the invasion, by terrorists of the Kaduna International Airport on Saturday, March 26, and the bombing of the Train on March 28.

At least, eight people lost their lives in the attack, 25 people were injured, and over 100 people remain unaccounted for.

FG Suspends 3000 Workers

By
James Orji
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Federal Secretariat Abuja

By James Orji

The Head of Service of the Federation, HoS Folashade Yemi-Esan says the federal government has nabbed over 1,500 fake civil servants.

She also disclosed that 3000 civil servants who failed to make themselves available to the committee have now been suspended.

The workers, she said were discovered after they presented fake employment letters to the verification committee set up by the government to uncover fake and illegal recruitment in government agencies.

Yemi-Esan, revealed this at the ‘National Policy Dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in Public Office Recruitment in Nigeria’ organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC in Abuja, on Tuesday.

Folasade Yemi-Esan
Folashade Yemi-Esan

She said the revelation was a joint operation between  the ICPC and her office.

According to her, “Sometimes in March of 2021, this office informed the ICPC that there were quite a number of fake letters of appointments circulating in the ministries,” the civil service chief said.

“At that particular time, we discovered that in just one ministry alone, there were over a thousand individuals bearing fake letters of appointments. And they were already enrolled on the payroll.

“The Office of the Head of Service received another report, this time from the Federal Civil Service Commission itself, forwarding names of over 500 persons in various MDAs that possess fake letters of appointments.”

She explained that over 1,000 persons were discovered in one ministry, while 500 others were found in other ministries, departments and agencies during the exercise, noting that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system, IPPIS has helped in identifying unproductive, unqualified civil servants.

“In the past year, in one ministry alone, over 1,000 individuals bearing fake letters of appointment were detected.

“The office recently received a report, from the Federal Civil Service Commission, of over 500 persons in various MDAs in possession of fake letters of appointment.

“Following the Service-Wide Verification Exercise for officers recruited from 2013 – 2020, the commission also requested the suspension of salaries of over 3,000 officers across the MDAs,” she stated,’ the HoS said.

According to the figures provided by the office over 380,000 officers had been captured on IPPIS – 66,000 and 320,000 for core and non-core MDAs.

Ogun 2023: Adebutu Says APC Is Enabler Of Irresponsible Government; Vows To Sack It

By
Akinwale Kasali
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Oladipupo Adebutu

By Akinwale Kasali

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governorship Aspirant, Oladipupo Adebutu, son of prominent businessman, Sir Kensington Adebutu, has engaged in verbal political war with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ogun State.

Adebutu had made the declaration of his Gubernatorial aspiration last week in a carnival-like event held at the Ake Palace ground, in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital.

Adebutu who ran for the 2019 Governorship Election in the State but lost the ticket to the Late Burundi Kashamu assured the people of the state of the readiness of PDP to wrestle power from the ruling APC come 2023.

However, Adebutu’s statement has not gone well with the APC. Its Publicity Secretary in the state, Tunde Oladunjoye, described Adebutu’s ambition as dead on arrival.

Oladunjoye  reaction has led to both parties trading words.

Speaking through the Media Director, Ladi Adebutu Campaign Organization, Afolabi Orekoya, he described Oladunjoye as a tragic character who has exposed the failures of Dapo Abiodun’s Government.

It noted that Oladunjoye’s attack on his declaration speech was an indication the ruling APC is jittery.

He emphasized that rather than attacking his personality or PDP, Oladunjoye should have converted the same energy to advise Governor Dapo Abiodun-led APC government on how to address the growing insecurity leading to wanton killings across the state.

“However, for the sake of unsuspecting members of the public, it is important to set the records straight and remind the rudderless mouthpiece of his battered personality and equally put him where he belongs as this perhaps might be the last time he would be lucky to have a response from us.

“This is because we are more focused and determined to judiciously spend our time on how to deliver the people of Ogun State from the shackles of the clueless government that Oladunjoye represents, that he had also acknowledged as a “weak government” in not less than two different occasions; we will not continue to trade words with him so that our case will not be like that of someone who had his clothes taken away from the bathroom by a mad man and started running after him, and both of them would be taken to be mad.

“In his litany of falsehood, Oladunjoye who has a reputation of always blowing cold and hot at the same time; always talking from both sides of his mouth, should not have had any cause to react to the declaration speech of Hon. Adebutu if he was correct with his judgment on the declaration. For him to have reacted, it means something meaningful came out of the gubernatorial declaration of which he and his paymaster would still see much more when the campaign proper starts.

“It is so disheartening that Oladunjoye could not cover his face in shame and convert the energy he used to react on Monday to advise his boss, Mr. Governor, on how to make Ogun State peaceful and address the growing insecurity leading to wanton killings across the state.

“For us, we would have thought that Oladunjoye would have deployed the same energy with which he went on a verbal onslaught to charge the state government on its criminal silence on the menace of cultism and avoidable violence which has become a daily routine in Ogun state.

“Apart from failing to check violence, Oladunjoye should be reminded that the ruling APC government has refused to remit workers’ deductions since 2019. All appeals from different quarters to make the Dapo Abiodun government see reasons for immediate remittance of the worker’s entitlement have been largely rejected.”

Adebutu, therefore, reminded Oladunjoye that the APC Government has failed to provide potable water for the residents in the last 11years at the helms in the state.

“Moreover, we wonder why Oladunjoye chose to pretend as if he doesn’t know that the Abiodun-led government cannot provide potable water for members of the public. As a fact, members of the public in Ogun State, particularly in Abeokuta metropolis (the seat of Government) can bear honest witness to private individual’s intervention in this regard.

“Without mincing words, Oladunjoye is a classical enabler of an irresponsible government. Otherwise, he shouldn’t have forgotten that Ogun workers’ well-being deserves priority attention. It is public knowledge that Pensioners in the state embarked on peaceful protests twice between September and November 2021 to press home their legitimate entitlement having served the state meritoriously in different capacities. Till now, what has the present Government done to put smiles on the faces of these great patriots of our State?

“We should ask Oladunjoye to tell us what significant achievement the APC government has made in sports? The Teachers’ recruitment scheme “OGUN Teach” that the outgoing government made so much noise about has not yielded anything. Some applicants that were given appointments letter over two years have not been allowed to resume work.

“These are just a few of the inadequacies of this government that one would expect Oladunjoye and his party to look into to make things better; they ask themselves if what we have in Ogun State today is what they promised, anyway, what will one expect from an opportunist in position?”

2023 Presidency: More PDP Govs Back Consensus

By
Tosin Olatokunbo
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By Tosin Olatokunbo

Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has become the latest PDP governor to back consensus arrangement for the selection of the party’s presidential candidate in next year’s election.

The Oyo helmsman joined the list of PDP governors such as Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, Godwin Obaseki of Edo State and others who have recently thrown their weight behind the consensus option being spearheaded by some leaders of the party.

The opposition party is not leaving any stone unturned in its quest to seize power next year from the ruling APC, and as part of that effort some PDP bigwigs have identified consensus as the only option that will keep the party together ahead the very critical election.

Governor Makined said the arrangement will lead to the selection of an acceptable candidate devoid of rancour.

Makinde disclosed this when he was visited at the Agodi Government House, Ibadan by Bukola Saraki, a former Senate President, Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto State governor and Bala Mohammed, Bauchi State governor.

The three politicians have spearheaded the consensus arrangement for the selection of PDP presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential election, and have been visiting top party leaders across the country.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday by Taiwo Adisa, chief press secretary to the governor, Makinde said he’s prepared to work with other leaders of the party to ensure that the party produce a consensus presidential candidate

He said the party had adopted the consensus arrangement in the past and should also work this time around. Former vice president Atiku Abubakar emerged as PDP consensus candidate in the 2019 election.

“We did it at the last convention of our party, and that was the first time the PDP was able to achieve bringing in a national chairman for the party through a consensus arrangement,” Makinde said.

“We believe we can do it and we also believe that Nigerians will take this party seriously when they know that we are all working together to give to them a president through a process that has everybody’s buy-in — where there is no rancour among the stakeholders.

“So, I promise my elder brothers that we will work hand in hand to ensure that this consensus arrangement is successful.

“I have also said that, internally, we will ensure that people understand what we are trying to do. And where there is any iota of doubt or confusion, we will put a mechanism in place where it will get addressed almost immediately as we move along.”

Meanwhile, the Iyiorcha Ayu-led PDP, the magazine has learnt has agreed to throw the party’s presidential ticket open. This however negates the clamour amongst some elements in its ranks that the ticket should be zoned to the southern part of the country.

On Tuesday, the Governor Samuel Orton zoning Committee set up by the party to work out an acceptable zoning formula for next year’s presidential election recommended that the ticket should be thrown open.

The decision appears not have gone down well with PANDEF, Middle Belt Forum, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and others who insist that power must shift to the south. They have all expressed their disatisfaction with thè party, warning that such decision could cost the PDP the chance of clinching power next year.

NURTW Dissolves Lagos Council; MC Oluomo Administration Ends Abruptly

By
Akinwale Kasali
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Musiliu Akinsany- MC Oluomo

By Akinwale Kasali

The end has finally come to the administration of Musiliu Akinsanya (MC Oluomo) as the Chairman of Lagos National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, following the dissolution of his Council by the National Body led by Tajudeen Baruwa.

For weeks, crisis has been rocking the Lagos Chapter of NURTW, leading to the suspension of MC Oluomo, his disowning of NURTW   following allegations of misconduct and insurbodination for constituted authority by MC Oluomo.

The escalation of the crisis led to the Lagos State Government taking over the Parks in the State to avert crisis that could lead to the loss of lives and properties.

Following the failure of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to resolve the crisis and bring the warring parties together, the NURTW National Body has directed the Lagos State Secretary, Seyi Bankole, to takeover the administration from MC Oluomo to avoid leadership vacuum in the State.

The National Body said it was the decision of the Executive to dissolve the State ’s Administrative Council, after it became obvious that members of the Council were ready to assume the leadership vacuum that trailed the indefinite suspension of MC Oluomo.

It was gathered that the National Body could not adopt another decision after all efforts to ensure that MC Oluomo and other members of the  Council backtrack on their previous stance of leaving NURTW completely recently.

A document signed by the NURTW National Headquarters at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, the Nation’s Capital, it confirmed the dissolution of the Lagos Administrative Council, and said it was reached after a meeting.

The decision to dissolve the Lagos State Chapter of the NURTW was reached at 3:30am after several hours of deliberation.

It was also gathered from sources that before the decision was reached, there were arguments at the meeting on what measures should be taken on Executive Members of the Lagos Chapter.

It also disclosed that barely two weeks before the dissolution, the National Executive had passed a resolution to grant pardon to MC Oluomo if he shows remorsef and tenders an unreserved apology to the Union.

The source stressed that up till the moment before the dissolution was concluded, the suspended State Chairman did not respond, nor did he appeal for more time to file his letter of apology before the transport body, a development that further aided the National administrative council’s decision.

According to the leaked document, it was resolved that the National Administrative Council, in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by Article 17, section 2. subsections (i) and (ii) of the constitution of the union, during its meeting of April 5th, 2022, has dissolved the Lagos State Administrative Council forthwith.

“In view of the fact that nature abhors a vacuum and in line with Article 42 section 4, the State Secretary, Seyi Bankole is hereby directed to take over the running of the affairs of Lagos State council pending the constitution of the caretaker committee after due consultations with appropriate relevant authorities, meanwhile, all members of the dissolved state administrative council are hereby directed to handover all property of the Union, including cash to the State Secretary”.

Signed by the National President and other members of the executive, the national body urged members of the public not to engage in any transaction with  MC Oluomo and other members of the dissolved council on NURTW matters.

“On the strength of the above development, therefore, all members of the Union in Lagos State and beyond, including members of the public are hereby kindly requested to henceforth stop dealing with members of the dissolved Lagos State administrative council on issues concerning the union”.

Use My Achievements To Market My Successor, Fayemi Charges APC Members

By
Ayodele Oni
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By Ayodele Oni

Despite barrage of condemnations and criticisms of his administration, Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi has insisted that campaign focus of his successor should be his achievements.

Opposition parties and even members of the ruling All Progressive Congress, (APC) have said that Dr Fayemi’s administration is a complete failure going by backlog of unfulfilled promises.

Fayemi has however replied his critics by telling them that his administration has done its best for the people of the state and that his achievements would earn APC victory during June election.

The Governor was speaking in Ado Ekiti at a stakeholders meeting of APC members drawn from the 16 local government councils.

The Governor’s second tenure will terminate on October 17 and the secretary to the state government, Biodun Oyebanji has been elected as a successor.

Fayemi, who is the leader of the party in the state, observed that members have more than enough to campaign with, considering the number of projects executed by his administration.

He advised that the continuity agenda was sustainable and should be the fulcrum of the coming campaign.

Addressing the stakeholders chairman of APC in the state, Mr Paul Omotoso, said with the coast clear for campaign, members should go all out to sell the party to electorate.

Omotosho thanked them for their commitment to party activities and their determination to ensure that nothing short of victory at the June 18 Guber poll was good enough for the party.

He said: “Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji is our governorship candidate and we must ensure victory for him in the coming guber election. It is therefore important that we all come together and work for him.

Omotosho added that any member aspiring for any other elective position must first work for the victory of Oyebanji at the coming poll, since that is the only way the party can attain other heights.

He further admonished members, especially the appointees among them, to go back to their different wards and be actively involved in the campaign by providing both moral and financial support for those canvassers at home.

Members resolved to suspend jostling for other elective positions while focusing on the ongoing campaign for the 18 June gubernatorial election, which they agreed would serve as the bedrock for other ambitions.

Other matters discussed at the meeting include the flag off of the campaign proper and how to embark on the house-to-house canvassing.

A Clown Car Of Wannabe Presidents

By
The Source
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Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State
Yahaya Bello

By Dan Abubakar

What do they know that the rest of us don’t? Why is it that in a time of such grave challenges to the very existence of the country, challenges that would tax the ingenuity of even the most gifted in the art of statecraft, would -be presidents are dropping like confetti almost on a daily basis?

At the last count about 35 would-be presidents had either declared their ambition or were warming up to do so. Check out the roll call of candidates.

Several of the aspirants are state governors whose record of achievement is such that they should hang their heads in shame.

Standing out is Yahaya Bello, the accidental governor of Kogi State who was a fixture in Aso Rock where you could be forgiven if you thought he was Man Friday rather than governor of a state. When he started making a play at being president some years ago, claiming the mantle of the youth, you thought that, surely,he could not be serious and was only exercised by a diabolical sense of humour to relieve us of the tedium of the misery our lives have become. But, apparently, he was serious and now the joke is on us.

Last week he officially announced he was running for president. No grand pronouncements or ideas as to why he was running. The event was notable for the particular fallout of the ruckus in the family of MKO Abiola as one sibling denounced another who had been recruited into the Yahaya Bello enterprise and had proceeded to favorably compare him to the late patriarch!  This is not to forget the domestic crisis he must have caused in his home when he forgot the name of one of  his wives!  I wager to say that the outrage of Yahaya Bello’s candidature is only just beginning.

The clown car is replete with other quixotic candidates that make you wonder whether they are in audition for Ali Baba’s humour ensemble rather than the serious business of governance of a nation in the throes of despair .

Take Nyesom Wike of Rivers whose bawdy approach to life and politics would in more normal times provide much ribaldry in a fellowship of the inebriated. But he wants us to believe he  is serious. And that alarms the grandees of his party, the PDP. Generously fuelled by  an ample supply of cash with which he wins friends and damns his enemies, he sows trouble wherever he goes and at every turn. But he may yet leave us with some good –  stopping another wannabe president, Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi in his tracks in their Rivers homestead which, if Amaechi is to be believed, has suddenly transformed into the bastion of Igbo identity.

Our politicians fail to reckon with the memory which social media draws upon. Someone helpfully posted a statement from years ago attributed to him where he allegedly said an Igboman could not be president.

Amaechi’s identity politics was earlier demonstrated by the traditional title conferred upon him by the Emir of Daura who decked this knight of the Roman Catholic Church with apparels and a turban fit for a feudal potentate. It was all of course a recognition for the many national debt-financed  projects Amaechi has blanketed the President’s hometown with. This  endeared him to the president who one wag has said belongs to nobody but himself, a pun on his 2015 inaugural speech where he said he belongs to nobody but belongs to everybody.

Amaechi is now expecting to be amply rewarded for being such a good boy. His apparent good standing was reflected by the visit of the First Lady to his home to congratulate him on his Daura title. Of course Amaechi is now making the motions of a presidential run.

Space would not permit a consideration of the many other characters in the clown car. But how can one forget CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele who helped preside over the ruination of the economy and thought his reward had to be the nation’s highest seat. I found his posters which adorned the streets of Abuja as reflecting the lack of political sense that had informed his hare-brained enterprise. There he was in the picture seemingly enjoying the endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari who loomed in the background.

Recent reports have it that he is beating a hasty retreat, denying that he ever intended to run, following belated official displeasure at what tantamounts to a most egregious act of impunity even in a land punch drunk from such disgraceful conduct.

But pray what is the source of all the money he and other candidates have splurged so far on publications, consultants, vehicles, traditional rulers and other public opinion influencers? In the present climate of impunity and irresponsible leadership,to talk of people being held to account is to be laughed out of court. But that day of reckoning will surely come.

Apparently what eggs many in the ruling party to run is whether they can get President Buhari’s nod. And with a president whose primary constituency is himself as earlier alluded to, being in his good graces assumes primary importance even more than  character or qualifications for the office.

Of course courtesy dictates that aspirants in the President’s party such as poor Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu or Vice President Yemi Osibanjo,  if he does run, inform him of their aspiration before they publicly declare but not necessarily to seek his endorsement. This is one instance when the President unlike his gambit at his party’s national convention should truly be for everybody and for nobody.

In any case in normal political climes where substance rather than sentiment rules and votes and the electoral machinery are not gerrymandered towards a predetermined outcome, endorsement from a non-performing figure like Buhari would  ordinarily amount to a kiss of death.

I have written earlier that only two personalities, Peter Obi who has since declared and Vice President Osinbajo who is still apparently taking his time to do so, are worth our attention. They in their individual ways stand for something. They have solid pedigrees and have plans on how to get us out of the present quagmire.

The rest of the field is made up of some dubious characters with oodles of cash and who former President Obasanjo says belong in jail, unserious fellows who may not even plausibly defend why they are running and, especially for the PDP, some career presidential candidates whose history and character make them patently unfit for the nation’s highest office.

They are muddying the waters and making a long abused  electorate even more disgusted with politics and the present breed of politicians.

Abubakar, a Political Analyst, wrote from Abuja

PDP Presidential Zoning Committee Ends Sitting, May Throw Open Presidential Contest

By
Ayodele Oni
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0

By Ayodele Oni

The Presidential Zoning Committee of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), has concluded sitting in Abuja with the resolve to convey its final decision to the Party’s National Executive Committee.

Chairman of the 37-member Committee and Governor of Benue state, Mr Samuel Ortom said after the meeting that the position taken is definitely in the interest of the PDP.

It was, however, learnt that the Committee recommended that the contest be thrown open to allow interested members from any part of the six geo- political zones to contest.

During his inauguration as National Chairman of the PDP, Dr Iyorcha Ayu said he would resign his position if the flag bearer of the party comes from the North.

One of the members of the Committee, Former Governor Ayo Fayose resigned his membership, attributing this to his interest in contesting for the presidency.

He had in 2019 announced his intention to contest for the number one seat in the country but later announced his withdrawal.

Fayose’s letter reads, “having hinted during our last meeting at my intention to run for the office the President in the coming primary election and by God’s grace; the general election. it will not be morally right to continue to participate in the zoning debate being an aspirant myself.

”Therefore, my state has nominated the bearer of this letter Dr Gbenga Faseluka to replace me”.

The PDP presidential Zoning Committee was inaugurated at the last national executive committee of the party to look into where the presidential ticket of the party be zoned to in the overall interest of all.

The ruling All Progressive Congress, (APC) has zoned the presidential slot to the southern part of the country.

Anyim: “I’ll Make Nigeria Work For The Good of All”

By
The Source
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0
Anyim Pius Anyim

Foremost Presidential aspirant for the 2023 General Election, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, has, once again, pledged to devote his time and energy to make Nigeria work when he becomes the President of the country next year.

An elated Anyim made the declaration on Monday when one of the support groups for his presidential ambition donated a Sienna bus to the “Greater Nigeria Campaign Organisation”, the name for Anyim’s campaign efforts.

Overjoyed by the efforts of the group, the Pius Anyim National Network (PAN NETWORK) for short, the frontline aspirant said, “I pledge that when by the grace of God and the will of all Nigerians I am elected President, I will apply my whole time and energy to make Nigeria work for the good of all.

“A Greater Nigeria is within reach”, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aspirant insisted.

Commenting further on the donation, Anyim enthused: “Since I declared my intention to contest for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I have been receiving tremendous support from Nigerians from all walks of life.

“But today, I witnessed one demonstration of support and solidarity that touched me beyond explanation. “A group of young people, who are members of one of my numerous support groups ‘ the Pius Anyim National Network (PAN NETWORK) for short, drove into my office complex in a Siena Bus branded in my campaign logo and pictures.

“When my attention was called by my staff, I came down to meet a team of young Nigerians from all parts of the country and they handed the vehicle to me as their contribution to the success of our campaign”, he stated.

He then thanked them for their selflessness sacrifice.

The Sienna Bus was presented by the leaders of PAN NETWORK, Paul Ogbonna and Alhaji Siddiq Sule in the presence of other members of the support group.

The Group said the donation was demonstration of their strong belief and commitment “that Senator Anyim Pius Anyim is the best aspirant to lead Nigeria out of her present crisis.”

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